WriteMaps has been gaining a bit of popularity lately and it has become very apparent that we have outgrown our current hosting setup. In response to this, over the next week or two WriteMaps will be moving to a much more robust hosting environment. I will be sure to keep everyone updated on the move and thanks in advance for your patience.
Posted by Scott on 12/22 at 11:05 PM
I came across a great application recently called "Fluid" (http://www.FluidApp.com) which lets you run your web applications like a standalone desktop app. You'll need Mac 0SX Leopard for it to work, but Fluid itself is free! After a quick install, it will prompt you for a website URL, and from that it will generate a Mac application and drop it in your applications folder. You can then drag it to the dock and use it like a normal Mac app, complete with all the benefits of expose! Here's a snapshot of WriteMaps in my dock:
By default, Fluid will use the favicon from the website as the application icon, but it's easy enough to replace the application icon by selecting the application, then getting info (command-i), and dragging a .icns file over its existing icon in the top left of the info window. If you use WriteMaps enough that you want to install it on your desktop using Fluid, here is a link to the .icns file you'll need for the application icon (Right-click the link and choose to download the file).
Posted by Scott on 12/16 at 07:58 PM
Several users have reported difficulty accessing their shared sitemaps in Internet Explorer. In these cases, WriteMaps was reporting a "Malformed JSON.." error in Internet Explorer while other browsers were loading the sitemaps without a problem. As of today, I'm glad to report that this bug is fixed and shared sitemaps should have no issues opening in Internet Explorer (6 or 7). I apologize for any trouble this caused anyone. If you continue to experience any issues, try clearing your browser cache and refreshing the page. If you still have trouble, please contact us with details.
In other news, the page info icons have been upgraded to be a little "smarter" now. A few people had pointed out that they didn't like having to click the icons to see if there were any notes for a particular page. To solve this problem, the page info icons now come in two flavors: light gray or blue. If a page has notes or a URL specified, its icon will be blue to let you know there's something in there. The screencap below demonstrates.
As always, please feel free to send any feedback you have. Enjoy!
Posted by Scott on 12/16 at 03:25 PM
Just a quick post to update everyone on some progress that was made with WriteMaps today. First of all, I was informed of a bug (via Ajaxian comments) where sometimes deleting and then adding the same page would throw an error. This issue has been resolved now - thanks for the tip! Also, a few people had requested that page notes allow line breaks in the text (multi-line notes). This is now implemented as well.
Lastly, I received feedback from several members requesting an option to export an HTML list of a sitemap. Since I am trying to avoid adding features that are not going to be useful, I've decided to allow people to demo this feature on a trial basis before integrating it into the UI. If you're interested in trying it out, grab this bookmarklet : WriteMaps: Export HTML. You can use it any time you have a sitemap open to export your sitemap as a simple unordered list with links. This could be used on your site as a clickable sitemap/directory. I should note that it is currently disabled for Internet Explorer users due to the way IE's rendered markup looks. So if you get a chance to try it out, please let me know if you'd like it in the file menu!
Posted by Scott on 12/14 at 02:52 AM
Rey Bango has posted a great review of WriteMaps on Ajaxian today. Thanks Rey and Ajaxian for spreading the word!
Also FYI: we are getting a good dose of traffic from the post so we'll do our best to keep things running smoothly but I expect the site to be a little less responsive this morning. We're looking to move WriteMaps to a different host as we've started to outgrow our current package. Priorities would be speed, lots of DB space, good support, and last but still very important, relatively low cost (pretty standard list, I know...). Anyone have any recommendations?
Posted by Scott on 12/12 at 06:30 AM
In the weeks since our version 1 launch, the feedback from our members has been overwhelmingly positive. Some have even gone as far as to ask where they can make a contribution to the team, so for this reason we have added a donation page. We would like to emphasize that while the idea that our users believe in our product this much is very inspiring, donating to WriteMaps is by no means expected of anyone, and making a donation will not constitute any special treatment above our current offerings. That said, donation proceeds will be extremely helpful in finding new ways to promote and extend our application, and we are humbled by those who have offered to give back to our cause. If you are interested in contributing to WriteMaps, you can visit our Donation Form, and be sure to leave us a note so we can thank you personally. Thanks so much in advance.
Posted by Scott on 12/06 at 04:12 AM
Boagworld has given an excellent review of WriteMaps in its latest podcast! In the latter portion of the episode, Paul and Marcus walk through the application on the air and give commentary on their experience. Big thanks to Boagworld for spreading the word!
You can download or listen to the podcast here: Boagworld Podcast #103: Bargain Basement (featuring WriteMaps)
Posted by Scott on 12/05 at 01:39 AM
During our beta release, the primary browser we supported was Firefox. Many of our members requested that WriteMaps support the Safari web browser, and we couldn't have agreed more. Well along with our 1.0 release, we are thrilled to announce that WriteMaps now provides full support for Safari, as well as excellent support for Internet Explorer 6 and 7! As a matter of fact, Safari seems to out-perform all of the browsers we test by a noticeable margin. Its handling of the animations while expanding and collapsing sections is extremely smooth, and its speed in manipulating large sitemap files is comparable to a desktop experience.
So, if you use WriteMaps frequently and have access to Safari, we highly recommend using it!
Posted by Scott on 12/01 at 07:39 PM
Welcome to the WriteMaps Blog. Here you'll find posts concerning updates, ideas, and announcements for WriteMaps.
